ERSPECTIVESERSPECTIVES AJSPPThe Magazine of the Association for Jewish Studies IN THIS ISSUE: Orthodoxy Then and Now SPRING 2008 AJS Perspectives: The Magazine TABLE OF CONTENTS of the Association for Jewish Studies President From the Editor. 3 Sara R. Horowitz York University Editor From the President . 5 Allan Arkush Binghamton University From the Executive Director . 7 Editorial Board Howard Adelman Orthodoxy Then and Now Queen's University Alanna Cooper University of Massachusetts Amherst Becoming Orthodox: The Story of a Denominational Label Jonathan Karp Jeffrey C. Blutinger . 8 Binghamton University Heidi Lerner Historicizing Orthodoxy Stanford University Frances Malino Jay Berkovitz . 12 Wellesley College Vanessa Ochs Thoughts on the Study of the Orthodox Community: University of Virginia After Thirty-Five Years Riv-Ellen Prell Samuel Heilman . 16 University of Minnesota Shmuel Shepkaru University of Oklahoma Religious Feminism in Israel: A Revolution in Process Abe Socher Irit Koren. 20 Oberlin College Shelly Tenenbaum Haredi Counter History: Some Theoretical Clark University and Methodological Aspects Keith Weiser York University Nahum Karlinsky . 26 Steven Zipperstein Stanford University Haredim and the Study of Haredim in Israel: Managing Editor Reflections on a Recent Conference Karin Kugel Kimmy Caplan and Nurit Stadler. 30 Executive Director Rona Sheramy Graphic Designer Perspectives on Technology: Matt Biscotti Wild 1 Graphics, Inc. Researching Orthodox Judaism Online Heidi Lerner . 36 Please direct correspondence to: Association for Jewish Studies Ethnographic Sketches from the Future of Jewish Studies Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street Marcy Brink-Danan . 42 New York, NY 10011 Voice: (917) 606-8249 Reflections on Jewish Studies, Twenty Years Later Fax: (917) 606-8222 E-Mail: [email protected] Howard Tzvi Adelman. 46 Web Site: www.ajsnet.org AJS Perspectives is published bi-annually by the Association for Jewish Studies. AJS Perspectives encourages submissions of articles, announcements, and brief letters to the editor related to the interests of our members. Materials submitted will be published at the The Association for Jewish Studies is an discretion of the editors. AJS Perspectives reserves the right to reject articles, affiliate of the Center for Jewish History. announcements, letters, advertisements, and other items not consonant with the goals and purposes of the organization. Copy may be condensed or rejected because of length or style. © Copyright 2008 Association for Jewish Studies AJS Perspectives disclaims responsibility for statements made by contributors or advertisers. ISSN 1529-6423 who have tended to accentuate the The first six articles in this issue innovative character of Orthodox trace the lineaments of quite a few FROM Judaism but also indicating some of of what Samuel Heilman has called the ways in which he believes their “the many faces of Orthodoxy,” but THE conclusions need to be modified. far from all of them. There is a limit, I am afraid, to what we can EDITOR Samuel Heilman casts a look do in a single issue of a fairly small backward not at the origins of magazine. To help readers take a Dear Colleagues, Orthodoxy but at what he now closer look for themselves at some takes to be its general trajectory of the missing visages, Heidi Lerner s is well known, the English over the decades he has devoted to has supplied an up-to-date and word synagogue echoes the the study of its contemporary highly informative guide to A translation into ancient manifestations. He relates how his Orthodox resources on the Greek of the Hebrew beit knesset. own work as well as that of some Internet. Another Greek-derived term that is other scholars has come to focus just as much a part of our everyday on the ultra-Orthodox world, The final two articles in this issue vocabulary about Judaism has no where, in their opinion, the are concerned with entirely such history. The word Orthodox “action” has increasingly tended to different matters. Marcy Brink- has in fact moved—and only rather be, but he concludes by observing Danan provides a lively and recently—in the opposite direction, new signs of vitality in the modern revealing report on the first from Greek through German and Orthodox community. Irit Koren, a American Academy for Jewish English into modern Hebrew. How scholar who is herself a product of Research (AAJR) Workshop for did a word that stems not only from the Israeli branch of that Early Career Faculty in Jewish a non-Jewish language but from community, describes an ongoing Studies at the University of Christian religious discourse “feminist ritual revolution” that has Michigan’s Frankel Institute for become the standard term for been taking place in its midst but Advanced Judaic Studies. Howard designating the most tradition- also in kindred Diaspora settings. Adelman reconsiders a piece about minded Jews? Jeffrey Blutinger, Jewish studies that he wrote for the who has written on this subject We turn from this turbulent sector Chronicle of Higher Education elsewhere in greater detail, starts off of modern Orthodoxy to the twenty years ago in the light of his our issue devoted to Orthodoxy precincts of ultra-Orthodoxy. subsequent experiences. What he with a brief recapitulation of some Nahum Karlinsky provides a brief has to say touches on a number of of his main findings. overview of the existing scholarship vitally important questions by ultra-Orthodox historians of concerning the relationship between Whether Orthodox Judaism is their own society and examines the Jewish community and Jewish simply a new term for something some of the ways in which such studies, questions that we plan to very old or whether it is itself scholars have selectively utilized address in our next issue. Readers basically a product of modernity is a modern research methodologies “to are invited to submit their responses question that has generated a beat modernity on its own turf.” to Adelman’s article for inclusion in considerable amount of scholarly Kimmy Caplan and Nurit Stadler the fall issue. discussion in recent decades. Jay report on a very recent conference Berkovitz presents an overview of in Jerusalem devoted to surveying Allan Arkush this issue, appreciatively assessing ultra-Orthodoxy from a variety of Binghamton University the work of Jacob Katz and others different vantage points. The Association for Jewish Studies wishes to thank the Center for Jewish History and its constituent organizations—the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute, the Yeshiva University Museum, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research— for providing the AJS with office space at the Center for Jewish History. 3 AJS INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS The Association for Jewish Studies is pleased to announce the following Institutional Members for the 2007-08 membership year: Case Western Reserve University, Samuel Rosenthal Center United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for Judaic Studies The University of Arizona, Arizona Center for Judaic Studies The Center for Cultural Judaism University of Connecticut, Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Columbia University, Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies Jewish Life Cornell University, Jewish Studies Program University of Denver, Center for Judaic Studies DePauw University, Jewish Studies Program University of Massachusetts - Amherst, Department of Judaic and Near Duke University Department of Jewish Studies Eastern Studies Foundation for Jewish Culture University of Michigan, The Frankel Center for Judaic Studies Georgetown University, Program for Jewish Civilization University of North Carolina Asheville, Center for Jewish Studies Hebrew College University of Oregon, Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion University of Pittsburgh, Jewish Studies Program Indiana University, Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program University of Tennessee, The Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Program in Judaic Studies The Jewish Theological Seminary, The Graduate School The University of Texas at Austin, Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies Louisiana State University, Jewish Studies University of Virginia, Jewish Studies Program Michigan State University, Jewish Studies Program University of Washington, Jewish Studies Program, Jackson School of New York University, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies International Studies Northwestern University, The Crown Family Center for Jewish Studies Vanderbilt University, Program in Jewish Studies The Ohio State University, Melton Center for Jewish Studies Washington University in St. Louis, Program in Jewish, Islamic, and Near Old Dominion University, Institute for Jewish Studies Eastern Studies and Interfaith Understanding Yeshiva University Pennsylvania State University, Jewish Studies Program Yeshiva University Museum Reconstructionist Rabbinical College YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies York University, Centre for Jewish Studies Stanford University, Taube Center for Jewish Studies UCLA, Center for Jewish Studies If your program, department, or institution is interested in becoming an AJS institutional member, please contact Rona Sheramy, AJS Executive Director, at [email protected] or 917.606.8249. MAKE YOUR VISIT HISTORIC OUR MISSION: PRESERVE, RESEARCH, EDUCATE The Center for Jewish History is home to the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation,